Journalismiziko

ANC SET TO LAUNCH DICTIONARY

The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal is set to launch its very own political terminology dictionary.

This was announced by Provincial Executive Committee member Ntombikayise Sibhidla Saphetha at the Durban City Hall on Wednesday.

Saphetha said that the main challenge faced by the social transformation sub-committee which was appointed in 2012 to translate ANC documents into indigenous languages, was to correctly translate political terms without distorting their intended meaning.

She further stated that they have created definitions to those terms that did not have isiZulu meanings and they will be appearing in their “soon to be launched political dictionary”.

Among the three already translated documents was the Freedom Charter which is now available in isiZulu.

The ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said that translating these documents was an act of strengthening the organisation and helps solve the lack of understanding of the policies and the constitution of the movement, even among its own members.

“Poor understanding leads to people wanting to destroy these documents, either because they don’t understand or they want the movement to serve their own individual purposes,” he said.

He added that the Imbobo Yenaliti document, also an isiZulu translation of the Through the Eye of the Needle document, deals with such tendencies of individual ambitions and lobbying.

“This document describes the ANC as an agent of fundamental change. It raises questions of individual ambitions and ensures that electoral processes do not tear the movement apart,” said Mantashe.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu, said translating these vital documents was not an end but merely a means to an end.